


reprise

by nonbinarynino



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bombs, Dark, Dark Adrien Agreste, F/M, Heathers References, Self-Sacrifice, Unhappy Ending, u dont need to know anything abt heathers to read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-04-05 21:12:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19048498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinarynino/pseuds/nonbinarynino
Summary: Chat turns to look straight at her, then, but it's somehow intimate and intimidating at the same time, and Marinette finds herself wishing that he was still looking out at Paris. "So you're saying, then, that you'd do things that you shouldn't do for a family member? You're saying that family comes first?""I don't know, Chat, okay? Can we - can we please talk about something else?"





	reprise

**Author's Note:**

> heed the tags  
> adrien is not the good guy in this story. he's not really the bad guy, either....  
> but he's definitely not the good guy.
> 
> tumblr: deadlydeviant

Adrien is acting weird.

He hasn't said a word all day, not even to _Nino._ Hell, he hasn't even looked backwards. He just keeps his eyes trained forward, staring straight into the wall ahead of him. It doesn't take a genius to realize that he's not paying attention to his classwork either, even though that's probably what his excuse is for not paying them any mind. Even his  _face_ looks different. Sure, Marinette has seen Adrien disappointed, sad, and annoyed, but she's never seen him like this. It's almost like he's void of any emotions that make him  _Adrien._

Marinette decides, upon walking into the classroom, that she hates it and that she'll do anything to make it better. She bids him an extra cheerful good morning, asks him if he'd prefer macarons or eclairs for a gift, and even starts up a conversation about Ladybug since she knows that's one of his favorite conversation topics. (Even though it always feels a bit weird to talk about herself in the third person.) But he doesn't look up when she greets him, says " _I don't want anything"_ to her question of food, and shrugs at her icebreaker about superheroes.

All of her best subtle cheer-him-up tactics are failing  _miserably,_ and she has no idea why. All she can do is shoot Alya a dismayed look and sink into her seat. She wants to make Adrien feel better, of course, but if being left alone is what will do that for him, then she'll do that in a heartbeat.

"It's the anniversary," Nino tells her during lunch, hushed, once Adrien is just out of earshot. "Of his mother's disappearance. That's why he's like this." Marinette nods, solemn, and clutches her purse a little tighter. She's never really  _experienced_ loss, not in the way that some of her friends have, but she knows how horribly taxing it can be. Alya still cries at the mention of her grandmother's favorite food, and Luka and Juleka both go quiet whenever someone brings up their extended family. There are so many different types of loss - death, estrangement, illness - and perhaps the worst part is that Marinette knows she can do nothing to stop any of it.

"He's spending a lot of time with his dad," Nino continues. "Apparently they're working on some kind of project, but Adrien gets strange about it whenever I bring it up. I don't know. Maybe some sort of memorial fund?"

Sure, Marinette doesn't know all that much about grief, but she does know that Adrien hadn't been like this last year. There had still been bags under his eyes, and his smiles had been forced, but he'd still been kind. He'd still talked to Nino and waved back at Marinette. The version of Adrien that she's seeing today is someone that she's never, ever seen before. Is this something that he's been hiding, ever since his mother had gone missing? Has he simply felt too much, too intensely, that he'd decided that the best option would be pushing it all away?

 _I wish your mom had been a little stronger,_ she thinks, but she knows that it would come out the wrong way if she ever said it out loud, so she says nothing at all.

 

 

Out of all of the things that Marinette had been expecting when she'd gone home that night, Chat Noir leaning on the railing of her balcony had definitely not been one of them.

"Chat Noir?" she asks, confused. Sure, they've crossed paths while she's been Marinette more times than she can count, but most of their meetings have been unintentional. This is different because it's him intentionally seeking her out in the middle of the night, looking as though he's not sure why he's there at all. "Why are you here?"

"Hello, Marinette," he says, his voice sounding ... smooth. Not the 'smooth' that he pretends he is, sometimes, full of flirtatious humor and sarcastic one-liners, but actually  _smooth._ It's as if he actually doesn't care enough to keep up with appearances, and Marinette finds that thought incredibly unpleasant. Gosh, why are all of the boys in her life acting so weird? "I just thought that I'd swing by to say hello."

"Er... hello," she replies, giving him a wave. He does not return it, instead opting to stare out into the night sky. She moves towards him so that she can at least partially see his face, leaning out to follow where his eyes are staring. "Do you want anything to eat? Macarons? Eclairs?"

He smiles as though she's told him a joke that only he knows the punchline to. "I'm okay, princess, thanks." He doesn't give her anything else to go off of, so she loiters next to him for a moment, the air quickly becoming awkward. "Have you ever heard of the trolley problem?" he asks her, startling her out of the silence that they'd created.

Marinette blinks a few times, growing increasingly perplexed. "The what?"

"The trolley problem," he says, as if that should be clarifying everything, but of course, nothing changes. "In ethics."

"Oh, no," she responds with a shrug. Has he really come to her in the middle of the night to talk about ethics? He's never mentioned anything about ethics to Ladybug, so the fact that he has an interest in it is completely baffling. "I can't say that I have."

"There's a trolley going towards five people that are tied to the tracks," Chat explains. "You're next to a lever that can redirect the train to another track, but if you do, it will go towards - and therefore kill - a singular person instead. What do you do?"

Marinette frowns. "Isn't that kind of morbid?"

Chat scoffs, but it's not a teasing thing at all. It seems so frustrated, almost  _angry._ In an attempt to not be offended, she reminds herself that he's obviously hurting very badly. "Just answer it. Please."

"Okay, um... I'd flip the switch. One death is preferable to five, right?"

"What if the singular person was somebody that you knew? What if it was your dad, or, I don't know, your reporter friend Alya? Would you still let them _die_?" His voice is raising in volume as more emotions take control of his voice, quickly becoming clear that he is searching for an answer that she's not sure she knows how to give. Fearful tingles go down her back, but she doesn't show it. Chat has never  _scared_ her before. She's surely being ridiculous by being afraid, right?

"I - I don't know. I couldn't let them die."

Chat turns to look straight at her, then, but it's somehow intimate and intimidating at the same time, and Marinette finds herself wishing that he was still looking out at Paris. "So you're saying, then, that you'd do things that you shouldn't do for a family member? You're saying that family comes first?"

"I don't  _know,_ Chat, okay? Can we - can we  _please_ talk about something else?"

She almost expects him, in his bad mood, to refuse, or to get angry with her, but he offers her a tight grin instead. "Thank you, Marinette. I'm glad that you agree." Finally, he breaks eye contact, straightening his posture so that he's not leaning anymore. "I need to make a decision that will hurt people that I care about. But you're right. Family comes first."

She bites down her cry of  _but I never said that,_ because it seems that Chat Noir has found the answer that he is looking for. "I am sorry that you have to do that," she says, delicately, not wanting to say something that could bring him back to his former distressed state. "Let me know if you want to talk again, okay?"

Chat sighs, insufferably long, but she can only guess what his reasoning for it is. It's as clear as day that he's in distress, but why? And why would he come to her, a girl that he barely knows? "I wish she'd stayed around a little longer," he says, so quietly that it almost breezes straight over her head. She wonders who he's talking about. Ladybug? Someone else? "Bye, princess. See you around."

Just like that, he's pushing himself onto the railing and heading into the dark night. Marinette can only watch as his figure fades away, feeling as though she's somehow done something wrong.

 

 

"Hey, guys, I had the best idea today," Nino says in class, tapping Adrien's shoulder so that he'll pay attention. It's been two weeks since the anniversary of his mom's death, but everything about him is still... faded. The only emotion that she's seen him show is _anger,_ which had been directed at Chloé the other day. Nino and Alya keep saying that grief is a tricky thing, and that he'll start acting more normal soon, but Marinette doesn't see the end drawing near. "We should all go glow bowling! The loser can buy pizza!"

"That sounds great," Alya agrees instantaneously. She nudges Marinette's foot underneath the table. "Kind of like a double date, right, Marinette?" Nino rolls his eyes at his girlfriend's antics, but Adrien... Adrien isn't even looking at any of them. It seems like it should be his turn to talk, to say something like  _you're going down, Nino!_ or  _I'll check my schedule,_ but he doesn't say a thing. The silence sits heavy between all of them, solidifying the fact that they're all aware that something is still wrong with Adrien.

"That does sound like fun," Marinette says. "I'm free most days next week, I think. Adrien, what day would work for you?"

"I can't go," he says, automatic. He doesn't even look at them, he just keeps staring blankly ahead, as if that will make them go away.  _He could at least pretend to be busy,_ Marinette thinks, bitter, but immediately reprimands herself. He's going through a lot, and she has no idea what it's like. She needs to be a good friend.

"Maybe next week?" Nino prompts, cautious but still as friendly as ever. "It's not like we're in a rush or anything, dude."

"I can't next week."

All of them kind of quiet down at that, because doesn't he always say that he gets his schedules on every Monday? How would he even know, without a doubt, that he's always busy? The bitterness inside of Marinette boils, but she swallows it down. _It's not his fault,_ she tells herself.  _It's not his fault._

"Well," Alya starts, hesitating before finishing her sentence. "You can just let us know when you're free, and we'll work around that!" It's an olive branch, an easy way for him to give a vague affirmation and move on, but it's one that Adrien doesn't take.

"I'm never going to be free, Alya," he says, and oh, the double entendre is not lost on Marinette, "Can't you see that? I don't  _want_ to go bowling or ice skating or - or whatever. I'm working on something with my dad, anyway. Just leave me  _alone,_ okay?"

This new, angry version of him, grabs something in Marinette's heart and sets it on fire in the worst way possible. "I wish your dad were good," she snaps, and even though the pissed off, wicked expression on his face is a clear indication that she should shut up, she can't stop. She's overflowing with fear and concern and  _hurt,_ so sharply that it's drowning her. "He's changing you, Adrien, don't you see that? You're not the same person that you were before."

He laughs at her, even though there's nothing amusing. She's filled with déjà vu, but the sensation so bizarre that all she can do is frown at him. "It's true, I'm different." His smile is sharp, as if a pair of fangs would not be out of place. "But it's for the better, princess. You just can't see it."

That pet name - that bizarrely familiar pet name - has never sounded so menacing. God, why is that so familiar? Why is it so  _scary_?

" _Marinette,_ are you insane?" Alya hisses from beside her. "You can't talk to him that way!"

The anger that had just been fizzling out of every corner of her, consuming her very being, melts all at once. A cold, sharp horror fills its place, the ice to the fire that had lived before it. She opens her mouth to say something,  _anything,_ maybe an apology, maybe a demand for him to make one, but she snaps her mouth shut. He's different. His very  _aura_ is different, not dissimilar to an akumatized victim. For a moment, she entertains the idea that maybe he  _is_ akumatized, hating the fact that she hopes it's true. But there had been that college student just last night, the one that she'd had to fight off by herself because Chat had been unreachable. Hawkmoth can't akumatize two people at once, so the lonely truth is that this is simply who Adrien has become.

"I'm not insane," she tells Alya, muted to the point where she's not sure if she has even been heard, and rests her head on the table.

 

 

Chat Noir doesn't show up for the next akuma, or the one after that, or even after that, and then it's been a fortnight's worth of akumas and she hasn't seen him at all. It's  _terrifying,_ knowing that the last time that she'll ever see Chat could possibly be that one night on her balcony. She asks Master Fu, but all he says is that he senses that something is horribly wrong. Marinette fakes two sicknesses, one family emergency, and a detention in order to scout the streets until the latest hour possible, desperate for some sort of answer into her partner's disappearance. But no one has been on their favorite rooftop in weeks, and the only people on the Eiffel Tower are American tourists. The present has become the past without a moment's notice, and deep down, she knows that Master Fu is right. Something is wrong.

She gets this feeling in her gut, sometimes, when she's near an akuma victim. It's not the swirling mess of her anxiety, or the rock in her gut that accompanies her loneliest nights, but it's there all the same, sending tingles down her back. Ladybug is feeling that right now, except there's something  _off_ about it. She follows the feeling down alleyways and busy streets alike, turning left and right and left over and over again, simply knowing that she is going the right way. She ends up on a street a few blocks away from the Agreste mansion, staring straight at a shadowed figure, just out of the streetlight's aim. The feeling in her stomach grows stronger now, causing her to realize that this must be the akuma that she's been looking for.

"I caught up to you," she tells them, only feeling a little intimidated by the fact that it's late and she's alone. She's too relieved that her chase has led her somewhere. "You gonna face me here?"

When they turn around to look at her, Ladybug's first thought is  _wait, that's not an akuma._

Her second thought is  _oh my God, that's my kitty._

Chat isn't in his usual suit, though. Instead of black, he's clad in navy blue, and his cat ears and tail are nowhere to be seen. His eyes aren't green, either, instead a dark, stormy purple. Ladybug's eyes drift down to his hands, expecting to see a baton, but instead, there's a hand fan, curled tightly against his side. The paper that it's made of doesn't seem normal, no, instead it seems almost... feathery?

 _The guardians' temple was destroyed, all because of me,_  Master Fu had said, during one of their first encounters. _Two of the Miraculous were lost that day. The Butterfly -_

_\- and the Peacock._

"No," Ladybug says, stepping closer to him. He simply takes a step back. Can he not bear to be near her, or does he simply loathe the idea of her in his personal space? Has that much truly changed? "Chat, please tell me you didn't-"

"I'm not Chat Noir," he says in Chat Noir's voice, with Chat Noir's face. "I'm Sorrowbird, now."

"I'm not going to call you that," she replies immediately. The name sings itself in her head all the same. _Sorrowbird, Sorrowbird, Sorrowbird._ What kind of a name is that? It implies that Chat had been so sad that he'd decided that joining up with Hawkmoth was the best answer, and she'd had absolutely no idea about any of it. "You're still my kitty."

"We've been on the wrong side this whole time, Ladybug," Chat says, as if he truly believes it. His eyes look so empty, and she hadn't realized that her favorite color had been green until it had been taken away. "We were so blind -  _convinced_ by the whole world that we were on some path for _the greater good_. But that's not right.  _We_ weren't right."

"Explain to me why you think that way," she replies, taking another step closer. He takes another step back, but he hits the streetlight straight on. This time, when she steps towards him, he has nowhere to run. "Please, tell me what happened. Let me prove to you that we're doing the right thing."

"Why should I explain to you something that you'll never understand? No one gets it. I wish grown-ups understood, but they _don't,_ and neither will you. You haven't been through what I've been through, Ladybug, and I don't need to know your identity to know that. I know that you have a nice home to go back to tonight. You don't  _get it,_ and I'm so tired of pretending that you do!"

" _Try me_!"

"My father is Hawkmoth," Chat says, casually, as if the words won't crumble her entire worldview. "My father is Hawkmoth, and he's doing this for all the right reasons, and I'd be the worst son alive if I didn't help him. I  _love_ you, Ladybug, and I hope you know that, but I want my family back so bad. I'll do anything."

_My father is Hawkmoth._

_My father is Hawkmoth._

Why does that feel like something's clicking into place, but she just doesn't know what?

 _He's spending a lot of time with his dad,_ Nino had said, the first day that Adrien had come to school without smiling.  _Apparently they're working on some kind of project._

 _I'm working on something with my dad, anyway,_ Adrien had snapped, almost as if he hadn't meant to say anything at all. That day, even being around him had felt so tense... Hadn't she compared his aura to that of an akumatized victim?

Oh.

 _Oh,_ _no_.

Ladybug doesn't realize that she's crying until her cheeks are itchy with tears. Chat seems surprised at the sight of them, pushing as far back as he can go without breaking the streetlight behind him in half. "Oh, Adrien," she says, "I know you're a good person. I feel it. You don't have to do this. We can go to Master Fu and work this all out."

Chat blinks - once, twice - and then he  _laughs,_ strangled and loud and unstoppable. He laughs until he's wheezing with it, choked gasps and all, and then he's crying, too. She aches to hold him, but she can't do that anymore, not when he's just betrayed her in the worst way possible. She just can't.

In the end, he doesn't try to take her miraculous, or attempt to convince her to switch sides. He just leaves her there in the dark, alone with her tears and her shaky knees.

 

 

Marinette doesn't go straight home after that. Sure, she probably should, especially since it's definitely past midnight, but... she just can't. The idea of going home after the double whammy of both Chat Noir betraying her, and Chat Noir being _Adrien ..._ (Oh, God, that means Gabriel Agreste, the best fashion designer in France, is Hawkmoth...) is simply too much for her to handle. So after detransforming, she lets her feet lead her to somewhere she hasn't been in quite some time.

The cashier grunts, half-asleep, when she walks through the door, but Marinette greets them warmly all the same. She coasts through the aisles, half paying attention to what's filling up the shelves, but her real goal is the slushie machine in the back. _Please have cherry, please have cherry, please have - Yes!_

Marinette gets the biggest size, knowing full well that it will give her a stomachache. But it's okay, because she already has a stomachache from anxiety alone. There's nothing like a good brain freeze to numb everything away, right? For the next ten minutes, she'll vow to only think about artificial flavoring and how red her hands will become from holding the cold drink-

"Good evening, princess."

Marinette almost chokes on her straw, but she manages not to. Instead, she blinks owlishly at the boy next to her, watching as he fills up his own slushie. He doesn't look at her, almost as if he cannot stomach it. Does he feel guilty, for what he's doing? Does he even care?

"Adrien," she says, softly, realizing that she has to pretend that he's still on the right side. She has to pretend that he has never been a superhero at all, because Marinette Dupain-Cheng doesn't know that. Only Ladybug does. "Didn't expect to see you at a convenience store at one in the morning."

He shrugs, finally looking at her. He doesn't look angry, but he doesn't look like he's happy to see her. It's as if every emotion has been sucked out of him with a vacuum, and she's just a crumpled receipt at the bottom of his bag. "I followed you."

That's.... that's fucking terrifying. Had he seen her wandering the streets, freshly detransformed? Or had he been following _Ladybug_? She needs to get out of here, just in case. "Oh," she says. "Don't do that."

"Of course, m'lady," he says, punctuated with the flourish of a bow that Chat always does when he's being ridiculous. It takes a little too long for her to realize why that gesture feels so wrong, wrong, wrong. He must see something on her face, because he smiles, almost like the boy she used to know. "There's only one blue-eyed girl who would cry over me being sad, Marinette. It's you."

She swallows thick. Those nightmares that she used to have, about Adrien being Hawkmoth, are no worse than this. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course," he says, smooth. When he turns to face her fully, she has no choice but to stare directly at him. He lifts his slushie cup and bumps it into hers, almost as if they're toasting champagne glasses at their wedding. "For what it's worth, princess, I wish we'd met before."

Marinette takes a step back, and then another, and then another. "Me too," she says. "Because you're not you anymore, are you?"  _You haven't been yourself for a while._

When she walks home, she feels eyes on her the whole way.

 

 

Gabriel Agreste is drinking coffee at the head of his table, surrounded by absolutely nothing. He doesn't seem surprised by Ladybug's entrance, believe it or not. He forces a smile at her when she enters, but spares no attention to the dozen policemen behind her. "Ladybug," he says, his voice so fake-pleasant that something curdles within her at the sound of it. "My son told me that I could be expecting you."

"That's nothing compared to what you've been telling him, Hawkmoth," she replies. She crosses her arms tight, hoping to look intimidating but knowing that she's only doing it because her hands are shaking. "Do you want to deny it? Or do you want to save that part for the interrogation room?"

"I can't say that being threatened by a teenager is particularly scary,  _superhero,_ " he says. He rises out of his seat, slow and steady, and outstretches his arms to show that his hands are empty. "Let's not make this a spectacle. I am more than willing to come with your friends willingly. Let's leave those handcuffs behind, yes?"

"That's not an option," one of the cops says. "Turn around, sir."

Gabriel Agreste does so, but when he does, he stares straight at Ladybug.  _I know how to hurt you,_ his eyes say.  _I will do it._

(The papers that she finds in his office, hidden under years of fashion archives, show exactly how he's planning to do so. Even when the cops pat her on the shoulder and tell her that he won't be able to pull them off from inside a prison cell, there's still an uneasy feeling in her gut that she just can't shake.)

 

 

When she's always imagined life after Hawkmoth, Ladybug had always imagined it to be peaceful. Quiet nights spent in, no more field trips interrupted, and finally being able to get to all of her classes on time. She and Chat could run around Paris on "patrols", mainly as an excuse for them to spend time together. Or, more unfortunately, the time might come for her to put her miraculous back into safekeeping. She'd always thought that the reveal would happen then, quietly, in Master Fu's house. She'd never thought that she'd find out in a dark alley, and she'd never thought that _he_ would corner her in a convenience store.

Two months ago, Ladybug had been absolutely convinced that Adrien was the love of her life. All of her dreams of hamsters and penthouse apartments... has she been dreaming of a life with a guy that she doesn't know at all? Adrien is lovely and funny and sweet, but he is also apparently the best actor in all of France.

She expects Chat Noir to continue his recent pattern of being elusive and difficult to locate, but he ends up finding her on her way back from the "Hawkmoth-is-gone" press conference. She accidentally corners herself against the backside of an apartment building in an attempt to keep him where she can see him. "Chat," she says, weary, before he can get too close, "Chat, please just hear me out-"

"You put my dad in jail," he snarls, shaking with fury, and for the dozenth time in the past month, she finds herself scared of him. "How can I forgive you for that?"

"He's a  _terrorist_! Did you know what he was planning to do? To me? To Paris?"

Chat doesn't answer her, instead shaking his head. "I know him. He's my family. I know that he does what's right. It's not pretty, of course it's not, but can't you see what sort of planet we're living on? Life isn't all nice and sweet, it's - it's  _war._ "

"They convinced you life is war, Chat, but it's not! It's really not! Life is so much more than what your dad has drilled into you. You don't have to listen. Please. Please."

For the briefest, most hopeful moment of her life, Ladybug thinks that he's about to lay his weapon down and accept her proposal. Instead, he charges at her with full force, leaving her no time to avoid the blow to her throat. She crumples to the ground, gasping.

"Life  _is_ war, Marinette!" The use of her real name while she's suited up shocks her into silence, but he doesn't look as though he's aware of the slip-up. Are Ladybug and Marinette really so similar to him that he can say that without thinking, while she still sees Chat and Adrien as two separate entities? "Life is a war that can never be won, and my father was trying to do the one thing that will make it okay again, and you stopped him!"

"Chat, it wouldn't have made  _anything_ better-"

"It will," he insists. "I'll see to it." Before she can even answer him, he lunges forwards and grabs her by the throat. She chokes, reaching up to pull his hands away, but it's useless. He pulls her so close to him that his breath is on her cheeks, but there's nothing intimate about it at all. All she can feel is fear. "Sorry, LB," he says, eyes narrowed and mirroring the robotic Adrien that she's come to know. "I can't have you in my way."

It's his eyes that she's still focusing on, bright purple and cold, when he slams her head back against the wall. After that, well, she can't see anything at all.

 

 

Ladybug's head throbs so bad that she almost doesn't get up. It's pulsing, burning, something so much worse than her infrequent migraines. She groans, pressing her fingers into the skin, but the added pressure does little to help. For a brief moment, the pain distracts her from the day's events, but then it hits her like a train - oh, God. Chat. His father's plans. The fact that he's currently putting them into motion  _right this instant._

She staggers to her feet, the mere action causing her to stumble and place her hand on the building next to her.  _Breathe._ Her breaths are panicked and short, but they're breaths all the same. She'll have to make do with that for now, at least until she knows that Chat isn't going to do anything horribly reckless. (She misses when reckless meant skinned knees, instead of the death of thousands of people.)

She has to find her kitty. Thankfully, the plans that she'd found in Gabriel Agreste's office had detailed every location that he'd planned on using. She can't remember all of them off of the top of her head, but she does remember the most important one - the Agreste mansion. Or, more importantly, what's underneath it.

Ladybug makes her way there slowly but surely, speed an impossibility due to what surely must be a concussion. Her exact target isn't the mansion's front door, but rather the manhole cover a few yards away from it. She yanks the cover off and drops down, not sure what she should be prepared to see.

Chat has his back to her, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what he's doing. Whatever he's working on has countless wires stretching out from it, all going so deep into the sewers that she cannot see where they lead, but she knows where they go. The mayor's mansion, the school, the park, and countless more areas all rigged to explode. She's not entirely sure how big the explosions will be - if they'll level a building or an entire city block - but she's certainly not going to find out.

"Step away from the bomb," she demands. His shoulders heave in a laugh as he turns his head to face her, but he doesn't move away. She grips her yo-yo tight, wishing that this wasn't in such close quarters. There's only one way that this will end, and as much as she wishes it wasn't the case, it's time that she faces the truth.

"You just can't leave anything alone, can you?" Chat asks, as if he's scolding a child. "Can't a guy fulfill his father's wishes in peace?"

"This is the exact opposite of peace,  _Sorrowbird,_ " she says, the name feeling so out of place when in reference to her kitty. Tears dance in the corners of her eyes, but she blinks them away. Now is not the time. "This is vengeance for something that is nobody's fault. This is murder."

"Don't you see that I have to do this? This is  _duty,_ Ladybug. Family comes first.  _You_ told me that."  _I never meant to,_ she thinks.  _I am so sorry that I put that idea in your head._

"I thought you were my family," she tells him. His face shifts at the sentiment, but not enough for her to feel as though his mind as been in any way changed. "I wish you'd come with me," she tells him, crying in earnest now. He's done horrible, horrible things, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't want to find a solution that involves the two of them staying together. "It's not too late, Adrien. I can find somewhere safe for you. We can work all of this out."

Chat's face softens for a moment, but it must just be her imagination, because when she blinks, there's no emotion there at all. He scoffs at her, and the mockery just makes her tears increase. "It's always  _I wish, I wish, I wish_ with you. You know what I wish, Ladybug? I wish I had more TNT." This time, when he lunges at her, she's prepared for it, taking a leap backwards. She shoots her yo-yo at him, hoping to tie him up, but he snatches it from the air and throws it to the ground, too far for her to reach.

Ladybug runs to get it back, but is stopped half-way there by two hands tugging at each of her pigtails, yanking her back into place. The movement jolts her already-pounding head, increasing the pain tenfold, and she drops to the floor, the back of her skull smashing against the concrete. The world flits out for just a moment, but when it comes back, Chat is right on the floor with her, gripping onto her ankles in an attempt to pull her closer to him. Her legs flail for a moment as she tries to free them from his grip, but when that proves impossible, she instead pulls her leg close to her chest so that she can bash her foot into his face. The first time, it barely deters him, so she does it again and again, until his grip is loose enough that she can pull her leg free and stumble to her feet. Once she's standing, she kicks him one last time, solidifying that he will stay down on the ground.

"There was once a time where you would have rather died than fight me," she tells him, as if he wasn't already aware. "Why'd you have to go from one extreme to the other?"

"You know me, Marinette," he tells her. "I've always been a bit dramatic." He flips so that he's lying on his back, trying to lunge back to his feet, but she pushes him back down before he can make any progress. She wants to say something like  _I'm sorry_ or  _I love you_ but nothing seems appropriate, so instead, she punches him hard in the face. The mere force of it makes his head bounce directly into the concrete, similar to what he'd done to her earlier, and his whole body slumps like a rag doll. She waits for a moment with bated breath, praying that he won't wake back up, but after his eyes remain shut for a few more moments, she realizes that she's wasting time.

There's only one bomb, excluding the fact that it's connected to countless other one's around the city. But if she can somehow defuse this one, then none of the others will trigger, right? At least not until she has the time to go collect them. It ticks away in front of her, relentless and terrifying, and there's nothing that she can do about. She has no Lucky Charm, and she has no idea how to defuse it. If the bomb goes off here, the explosion will trigger the rest of them, and then.... so many people that she knows and loves will be gone, and countless others.

She can't let that happen. She takes note of the timer (2:29 and steadily counting down) and yanks out all of the wires that lead towards the other parts of the city. Knowing that it's still dangerous for it to be anywhere near the other bombs, she gathers it in her arms and climbs up the ladder and back onto the city streets. Due to the late hour, there's nobody around to see her with a bomb, for which she's utterly thankful. Ladybug runs as fast as she can, vaulting over buildings and desperately hoping that she's going the right away. She can feel Tikki's presence, buzzing frantically, as if trying to dissuade her, but she has no choice. She just needs to get out of the city, needs to get somewhere without other people -

By the time that she gets to a safe enough place - (a huge park, one she'd used to go with her parents to have summer picnics, years ago) - the timer on the bomb is at thirty-four seconds. She looks around, frantic, but there's nobody around. There's nobody at all. She knows that it's a good thing, but for some reason, it makes everything feel scarier.

"Tikki, spots off," Ladybug says, and then she's just Marinette, alone in a park at night with a bomb in her arms.

"Marinette, please think about this," Tikki begs, so close to her face that Marinette has to go cross-eyed to look at her. "This is not how this is supposed to go. You can leave it here and run."

But she just shakes her head, stubborn. "Anyone could wander by. I have no idea what this thing will do. I need to be here to... to... shield as much of it as I can."

"Marinette, _stop_ ," Tikki says, but Marinette is already reaching for her earrings. Tikki doesn't need to disappear with her, after all. "Please, stop this-" Her voice cuts out when Marinette takes out the last earring. She shoves them into her purse and whips it as far away from her as it can possibly go. Hopefully, once somebody finds her, her parents will be able to take it home, and Master Fu can find the earrings. This doesn't have to be the last that the world has heard from Ladybug, no, only Marinette.

Okay. Great. That's solved. It's just her, now. Thirty-six seconds. That's an eternity.

There are so many things that she'll never be able to do, but that's okay. She'll never go on a date for real, or get into a university, or design Jagged Stone's outfit for the upcoming awards show. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It has to be okay, right? If it's not okay, then it won't be worth it, but it has to be. It has to be.

"Oh, Tikki," Marinette whispers, even though she knows that her kwami cannot hear her. No one can console her now. "I'm so scared."

"Ladybug."

Is she hallucinating? She shakes her head, trying to will the voice out.

"Ladybug," the voice insists again, and hands grab her shoulders. She turns to see a wild-eyed Chat Noir. The cut on his forehead that she'd given him is bleeding, all down his face and over his chin. When he smiles at her, tired and defeated, there's red in his teeth. "It's bad manners, you know, hitting it and quitting it."

"Chat, I -" she tries to say, but his lips are on hers. It's kind of disgusting, honestly, because he tastes like metal and blood and hate, but he kisses her as if it's the only thing that he wants to do. She doesn't pull away, but she doesn't kiss him back, either, and it only takes a moment for him to stop.

"Take a step back," he says, and unthinkingly, she does so. It's only then, far too belatedly, that she realizes that the bomb that had just been in her hands is now in his. She extends her arms to take it back, but he's too far away. "I wasn't lying when I said I loved you, you know."

"Oh my God," she chokes out, his intent finally clicking into place for her.

Twelve seconds.

He takes his ring off and tosses it, effectively trapping Plagg inside of it as he detransforms. Adrien looks even wilder when he's not Chat Noir, with his bloodstained collar and his usually-perfect hair all messed up. "Pretend that we did," he says. "Meet before."

"Wait, hold on," she begs.  _There's gotta be another way. We can run._ But it's too late. There's not enough time anymore.

"It's not your fault," he tells her. "I know you'll agonize over that. So just know that it isn't."

"Adrien, please-"

"I tried so hard to hate you," he says. Is that supposed to be a consolation?

Three.

Two.

One.

 

 

Marinette tastes smoke.


End file.
